Mark 12- Uh Oh

I say uh oh because this is one of those texts that I read this morning and as I read it, it was a deeply convicting text... Mark 12:1-12 is a parable a man who built a vineyard and rented it out to some farmers then went away on a journey. At harvest time he sent some workers to collect from the farmers fruit... but the farmers beat the workers sending them away empty handed. Then he sent more whom they beat. Then again he sent one that they killed. Finally he sent his son thinking, 'surely they will respect my son.' But the tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' So they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

Now as you piece this parable together you can see that the owner of the vineyard is God. He has left the estate, creation, in the hands of farmers (people). God then begins to send his servants (prophets) but they are beaten, disrespected, and even killed. Then in the greatest act of history, God sent his Son, who he loves and surely people should respect him. But, even his Son was despised so the Jewish leaders devised a plan to kill him thinking, "the inheritance will be ours!"

Wow. I realized how easy it is to ascribe a teaching to others. I find it particularly easy to look at the pharisees and think, "silly pharisees! Why would you kill the Son of God? That is foolish and I pity you!" But, here is the crux of the matter. The same wicked selfishness that is in each of those pharisees resides in me. "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it (Jeremiah 17:9)? I have a great capacity for evil... in fact, I heard recently that the only difference between me or you and a murderer is a narrow margin of escaping several foolish choices. You are always a couple steps from making a huge blunder and falling headlong into sin. When we look at this parable we have the gift of hindsight. We can see the tale play out and we can say to ourselves, "poor pharisees." But honestly we all make decisions like them. We all have the capacity to look at situations and selfishly try to serve ourselves. And that wickedness is brewing in each of us. That is why God was so gracious to us! He saw the utter state of despair that we were in and instituted a rescue mission. You are unable and unwilling to turn from your sin and he came down to free you from the chains of sin. He went to every measure to rescue you! Praise be to Jesus Christ!